QR codes for flyers and posters
The expensive part of a QR code is never the code. It is the ten thousand leaflets it is printed on, the delivery round that puts them through doors, and the fact that none of it can be recalled once the boxes leave the printer. Every decision about the code is really a decision about the run.
Print craft5 min read
Where the money actually goes
Look at any print quote. Stock, printing, finishing, then distribution, which for a leaflet drop can cost as much again as the printing did. Somewhere in the artwork sits a code that cost either nothing or a few pounds a month, and it is the only element on the page that can change what it does after delivery. Everything else is fixed the moment the ink dries. The code is fixed too, as a pattern, but what it points at need not be.
That asymmetry is the whole subject. The code deserves attention out of all proportion to its cost, because it is the one place a cheap mistake gets multiplied by the size of the run.
Placement on the artwork
- Next to the thing it answers. If the offer is on the front, the code goes on the front. A code exiled to the back of a flyer asks the reader to keep caring while they turn it over, and many do not.
- Away from folds. A crease through the pattern cracks the ink and breaks modules, and it gets worse with every day the leaflet spends in a pocket. On a folded piece, keep the code clear of every fold line, not just the main one.
- Away from staples and trim. The quiet zone, the empty border a scanner needs to find the pattern, is the first casualty when the guillotine drifts or a staple lands badly. Keep the code inside the safe margins your printer specifies, not touching the trim edge.
- Within reach, at eye level. For posters, remember that somebody has to stand in front of it and hold a phone steady. A code high on a wall, or behind glass with a light source opposite, fails for reasons no artwork can fix. The most common failure of poster codes is a code nobody can comfortably reach.
- Sized for the reading distance. The working rule is a tenth of the distance it will be scanned from, so a poster read from three metres wants a code around 300mm across. The print size guide has the numbers in millimetres, including the floor below which small codes reliably fail.
What to print beside it
A bare code is a test of curiosity, and most people fail it on purpose. Print a plain line of type that says what happens: “Scan for this week’s menu”, “Scan to book”, “Scan to give £3”. The reader should know why they are pointing a camera at your leaflet before they do it.
Then print the short address in words underneath. It costs nothing, it works for the reader who will not scan anything, and it means the leaflet survives a code that fails. Two lines of type are the cheapest insurance on the whole job.
Test one before you print ten thousand
Print a single copy at final size, on the actual stock, and scan it in the light the real thing will live in, with a phone that is not yours. A code that decodes beautifully on a monitor can fail on uncoated stock in a dim pub, and the difference only shows up on paper. Matte stock scatters light, laminate throws reflections, and a phone camera in bad light forgives far less than the one in your well-lit office.
Send the printer vector artwork, PDF or EPS, never a screenshot. The same guide covers file formats, along with the quiet zone and what a logo does to error correction. All of it is checkable before the run, and none of it is checkable after.
The arithmetic of a dead code
Use your own quote here; the shape of the sum survives any numbers. Say five thousand A5 flyers, printed and delivered, come to £300. The flyers go out, and three weeks later the code on them dies, because it was made on a trial that ended, or a plan that lapsed, or a free tier with a scan cap that got reached. The loss is not the code. It is whatever share of the £300 had not yet done its work, plus a full reprint if the offer still stands, plus the scans that arrived, failed, and will not be attempted twice.
Against that, the plans that keep a dynamic code alive: our Starter is £3.49 a month, which is £41.88 across a year, Pro is £9 and Business is £24, all in pounds including VAT. Whether that is worth it depends on one question only: will the destination change while printed copies are still in circulation? A menu that changes seasonally, a booking system you might switch, a campaign page that becomes next year’s campaign. If yes, the subscription is cheap against the reprint.
If no, do not pay us or anyone. A static code pointing at an address you control is free, cannot expire, and cannot be switched off by any provider. We sell the other kind, and this is still true. The free generators guide covers which free tiers expire, and the ten-second test tells you which kind a code already is.
One code per placement
If the same destination is going on a flyer, a poster and a shop window, use a different code for each. The scan counts then tell you which placement earned its printing, which is the piece of information that changes what you print next time. Counting at the redirect does this without adding anything to your website, and without storing anything about the people scanning. How that counting works, and its honest limits, is covered here.
And if a code on something already distributed has stopped working, the recovery steps are a different page: start there.
We make QR codes you can re-point after they are printed. The pattern on the page never changes, and the codes you have already printed keep working even if you stop paying.
Three codes free, no card. Paid plans start at £3.49 a month including VAT.